her old, sweet cheerfulness. "We
are alone again, dear father!" she said, "and I am going to see how
happy I can make you." And Peter's swift acceptance of this promise,
the joy on his face, his ready oblivion of all her neglect, his eager
interest in all she proposed, went to her heart like the wine of
gladness.

"Suppose I teach you chess, father!"

The proposal made Peter happy as a child. He answered that there was
nothing he wished to learn so much. He said he would go to New
York that very day for the men and the board--Staunton men and
board--nothing cheaper. He kept his word. He brought back the plain,
sensible pieces and their mimic battle-field in his hands. He was
as enthusiastic a pupil as any teacher could desire, and yet he was
brimming with conversation of all that he had seen in the city,
and on the train, and the ferry boats. And at last, when the little
table was drawn to the hearth and the two sat down to the game, it
was wonderful to see how eager and how receptive he was!

"It is the grandest bit of play in the world, Yanna," he said, when at
last the pieces were reluctantly restored to their box. "You have
given me one of the happiest evenings I ever had in my life!" and his
eyes shone with love and gratitude. "My girl is the best of all girls!
May God Almighty bless her!"

And without extenuations or exceptions, Adriana had also one of the
happiest evenings of her life. No one can gain a great victory over
self and not be happy. Adriana walked upstairs erect, with a smile on
her lips, and a glow in her heart, such as she had not felt for many
weeks. She undressed with her old alertness and method; she knelt down
in happy confidence, feeling that she could ask to be made happy when
she had made others happy.

From this brave new beginning, there was no back-sliding--or at least
none that Peter was permitted to feel. For Adriana was ashamed of
herself when she realized how much of the pleasure of other lives she
had sacrificed to her own selfish sorrow. Peter appeared next day to
be ten years younger. Betta was bright and busy as a summer bee; the
two old house-dogs came back confidently to the rug before the fire;
the stable-man got a smile through the window, and then ventured to
ask a favor for his wife.

"How cruel I have been!" she said. "How much happiness for others I
held in these two hands--and then withheld!" and she spread out her
palms, and tried to realize how full they were, an